Chapter One
"Please turn the page over when you have completed the section, and raise your hand. Your instructor will be along to pick it up shortly after. You will then be given the second-"
I sighed, rubbing my face with the palm of my hand. My pencil rolled weakly along the desk, stopping when it hit the corner of my stale water bottle. My eyes wandered, fixing on the window in the far corner. Outside everything was in hues of green, the sky a soft pastel blue. The sun burned through the clouds, and I knew then it would be another warm day.
It was beautiful outside, and I was stuck inside a crowded auditorium, with a thousand other twenty or something year old kids, writing a final on a course I didn't even want to take. Picking up my pencil, I squinted down at the test. My mind blanked.
Law. The most boring career choice I could think of. Yet here I was, writing a final that would equal basically my entire grade for the whole year. Beside me, a heavy set, olive skinned boy was sweating profusely as he worked out a question, his meaty hand shaking as he scrawled out an answer. If I were to pass this exam, I would probably continue on. Aiming for my Master's degree. Going out into the world to be a lawyer.
I snorted. Me? A lawyer?
I realized then and there that this was not what I wanted to be doing with my life. I don't know if it were a brush of luck or maybe just a freak coincidence, but then and there, all hell broke loose at Jordan C. Memorial University.
A siren wailed through the intercom, a strict male voice accompanying it. "Students return to your dorms. I repeat. Students return to your dorms immediately." As expected, panic ensued, and a thousand kids jumped up, everyone making a mad scramble for the door.
Pausing to throw my bag over my shoulder, I joined them. We had had a situation exactly like this last year when some crazy homeless man with a shot gun had wandered onto campus and threatened the students on their way to the cafeteria. That time there wasn't much of a threat.
This time, there was.
Shoving my way through the door, I craned my neck, trying to see what all the fuss was about. I didn't see any crazy guys wielding guns. All I seen was a crowd of people bustling about, screaming and shouting as they made their way for the exits. Grasping my bag tighter, I followed them, keeping in the center of the crowds.
My dad had always told me not to draw attention to myself if I was ever in an emergency like this, and I followed his advice. Drawing my hood up around my ears, I continued, jogging to keep up with the panicked herd of people.
The dorm I shared with my childhood friend Lisa was just beyond the auditorium I had been in. A small group of varsity jocks were hustling for the doors now. I followed them.
One of them, a sandy haired boy I think was called Reuben, ushered me through. I began to climb the stairs, taking them two at a time. The dorm was eerily quiet.
Reaching into my pocket, I felt around for my keys, pulling them out with a shaking hand. I touched the door, and it fell open with a creak. Unlocked. My heart hammered. This was unlike Lisa. She never left the door unlocked - she was even more paranoid then me about intruders. We both agreed to carry keys around for this reason.
"Lisa?" I called, sidling into the room. I didn't hear the familiar clacking of keys or the humming that meant my roommate was home. I frowned, slipping my shoes off. Maybe she was out?
I knew that was unlikely.
There was a heavy thump, and a piercing caterwaul. A streak of black and grey fur blasted past me, tearing down the hall. Sebastian, Lisa's crazy cat. I had seen him worked up before, but not like this. Something was wrong.
Edging around the corner, gripping my keys tightly in my hand, I froze.
What I seen would have been enough to make any other person run screaming.
Instead, I only managed to turn my head before vomiting up anything that had been left over in my stomach. Again and again I retched, until I was empty, but even then the heaves didn't stop. "Oh, god," I moaned, pressing my hand to my mouth. "Oh god oh god oh god."
Sprawled on the floor, her limbs twisted at impossible angles, was Lisa. Her mouth was open, her eyes wide. It looked like she had been surprised. Someone - no, something, had carved her like a Jack-O-Lantern. Blood spilled through her shirt, soaking into the carpet.
Falling to my knees, I crawled towards her, heaving again when I felt her blood soak through the knees of my pants. "Lisa," I whispered, shaking her shoulder. I knew it was useless, but I needed confirmation. Her brown eyes had glassed over long before I got here. I hung my head, shaking. My best friend. Gone. Just like that.
Murdered.
The word caused my heart to thump faster. Whatever had done this to her couldn't be far away. As I stood, surveying our small apartment, thoughts slipped through my head. The cuts were too precise to be made by any sort of animal, and how would a wild animal have slipped into the downtown of Chicago and sneak into a college dorm anyway? That meant it had to be a someone.
My blood froze. Whoever the murderer was had clearly been looking for something. He or she had left the apartment untouched. Well, except for Lisa. I crumpled to the floor, everything fading to black.
"In here!" A male voice instructed, and I heard the heavy falls of boots making their way towards me. I stepped back from Lisa, stumbling over something. I landed with a crash, just as a team of uniformed men burst through the door.
The leader, a tall man with light brown hair and piercing blue eyes, scowled. "Goddamnit," he swore under his breath, creeping forward. He toed Lisa's limp body. "Paul! Radio the Big Man. Another confirmed death in block 32. Lone survivor." The man I assumed was Paul nodded, stepping back into the hallway, muttering something into the radio pinned to his chest.
The leader knelt beside me, tilting his head. "Are you all right?" I stared at him blankly, wondering if maybe he was going to slice me up like a pumpkin just like Lisa. He snapped his fingers, drawing my attention back to the present. "Hello? M'am? Can you speak?"
I nodded weakly. He rose, offering me a hand. He pulled me to my feet, and I instantly began to sag. Two uniformed men stepped forwards, catching me under the arms and propping me up. I didn't protest. I was too weak.
Paul poked his head around the corner of the door. "Captain? He says to get down and out. Squadron 432 has swept the rest of the building."
"Status?"
"None, Sir."
The captain swore again, knotting his hand in his hair. He took a moment to ready himself, then turned back to me and his men. "All right. Get her out of here. I want to look around for another moment. Aaron, Dean, take her to the Man."
The two men holding my arms nodded curtly, spinning us around as we walked to the door. I didn't see the point in shrugging them off. I couldn't keep pace anyways. We jolted down the stairs, marching into the bright sunlight of the campus. Pockets of shaken students stood everywhere, some talking, some crying. Many were splattered with blood.
I wondered what exactly had happened here.
We made our way to the head office, which was packed with the uniformed men. I was brought to the front of the crowd, dumped into a flimsy plastic chair. I groaned, shying away from the light.
A man walked towards me, his boots making a crisp sound on the tiled floor. "Who is she?" he asked, hooking a finger under my chin and tipping my face up. I stared into his face. He felt familiar somehow. An eye patch covered his eye, and when he frowned, there were deep lines etched into his face, which led me to believe he frowned a lot.
"It's her, Sir. His daughter," one of the uniformed men replied, adjusting his gun.
His daughter? I frowned. Who was he? My father had died in a car accident when I was only small, leaving my mother and my two brothers and myself alone. He had been an accountant. Certainly nobody important.
The eye patch man, recognizing the look of confusion on my face, turned back to me. "Greetings, Samantha. I trust that you are very confused by what's going on here."
I frowned up at him. "How do you know my name?"
He smirked, shaking his bald head. "I knew your father well. He was very proud of you, Samantha. Your brothers, too."
Okay, this was getting creepy. How did this man know so much about me? I couldn't see him associating with my father. He looked...dangerous. The exact opposite of my father. He continued speaking.
"Your father was a brave man, perhaps the bravest I've ever known. He died fighting for what he believed in-"
"He died in a car crash."
Eye Patch smiled sadly. "No, he didn't. You and your brothers were told that so you would not search for him. He was very much alive after that car crash. It broke his heart to leave you all, but it had to be done. It was for the greater good."
I scowled, adjusting in the chair. "What could be more important than raising and supporting your family?" I couldn't think of anything. We had barely scraped along on my mom's poor job and the small lumps of money relatives offered us when they could. There were several times when I wondered if we were going to go hungry growing up.
"Saving the world, maybe?"
I laughed, shaking my head. "You're crazy. My father, saving the world? Yeah, okay pal."
He narrowed his dark eyes. "Surely you are familiar with the events that happened in New York last year." Memories flashed through my head. Of course I remembered. The so called alien invasion. Eye Patch continued. "Those events were not fake, Samantha-"
"Sam." I corrected.
"Those events were not fake, Sam," he obliged, his tone sharp. Not one to be corrected, I guessed. "They were very real. Your father was killed trying to stop the man that led those attacks. He was brave, and he was easily one of my best agents. I miss him every day. Phil Coulson was no coward."
My heart thudded at the mention of my father's name. After he had died, we had taken my mother's last name, Green. "That still doesn't explain to me why you're here. Why in the hell was my roommate carved and bloodied on our dorm floor? What is going on?" I was nearly screaming.
Eye Patch bowed his head. "The reason we are here is because of an escaped prisoner. The same man who caused the crimes to New York. He was here today, and he was looking for something."
My eyes widened as I processed this.
"We believe the thing he was looking for is you."